John Bishop, the co-founder of the International Motor Sports Association, a sports-car racing sanctioning body, died Thursday in San Rafael, Calif.

Bishop was 87. He died of complications from a recent illness, according to a release from the sports car sanctioning organization.

Bishop was an official with the Sports Car Club of America in 1969 when he and his wife, Peggy, and NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. met and started IMSA, which became one of international motorsports' leading sports-car organizations.

"Bill said he thought there was a need for a new organization, and that he thought I might be the person to run it," Bishop said in a recent interview, according to the Associated Press. "Peggy and I didn't know what we were getting ourselves into."

IMSA enjoyed its peak years in the 1980s and 1990s, thanks in part to the sponsorship involvement of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which put its Camel cigarette brand on the organization's top series.

Bishop sold IMSA in 1989, in part due to health issues, but remained a vital part of sports car racing with a lengthy tenure as commissioner of Grand-AM.

"John's passing evokes grand memories of another era of sports car racing in North America," said IMSA chairman Jim France, son of Bill France Sr. "We are thankful that John lived to see IMSA sanctioning the new unified sports car series and guiding a new era.

"We have lost a man who, once upon a time, was a sports car pioneer. Over the years, he became a giant in our industry."

According to the Associated Press, funeral arrangements are pending for Bishop, who will be inducted posthumously into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in August. The family is asking that donations in Bishop's honor be made to the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen, New York.